Generations Merged : Reading The Lightning Thief
by GoddessOfSweetness-Me
Summary: While cleaning their attic, Anthony and Krysiela Jackson stumble upon several books containing their father's adventures. Opening them, they realize that nothing in their life is ever simple. Even something like opening a book can have scary outcomes, like, oh, maybe getting transported twenty years back in time, when their dad is just nineteen.
1. Prologue: Books Thrill But Kill

**Author's Note: Okay, I know this has been done _a lot_, but I just wanted to give it a try, seeing as I find these stories interesting. Please don't be mean and write bad reviews, because you yourselves hate it when someone does that to you, so just imagine yourselves with other people also. And understand, that we aren't robots which have no feelings (though I'm pretty sure robots have _some_ feelings. If not, then in the coming centuries they will. Mark my words, readers. This will be the beginning of the Robots Have Feelings Too revolution).**

**All that drama aside. On with the intro.**

**Ta-da!**

**This story has been written by GoddessOfSwee-**

**No!**

**I like it this way better-**

**Title Of The Story: **_Generations Merged : Reading The Lightning Thief_

**Author Of The Story: **_GoddessOfSweetness-Me_

**Series This Work Belongs To: **_Generations Merged_

**Fandom: **_Percy Jackson_

**Time Setting: **_Next Generation, 2033_

**Characters From The Books: **_Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Nico di Angelo, Thalia Grace, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, Chiron, and other campers, depending on who I think should have the honor of being mentioned in this story._

**Original Characters: **_Anthony Frederick Jackson, Krysiela Sally Jackson, Hayden Travis Stoll(mentioned), Skylar Lukas Grace(mentioned), Samuel Confianz Valdez(mentioned), Emily Mariah Zhang(mentioned), Jessica Thalia Grace(mentioned)_

**Summary: **

_The Jacksons are known for creating problems. Trouble loves them. And it seems, that even though her children are very smart, even Annabeth Jackson cannot prevent them from getting themselves into trouble.  
__It was all Krysiela's fault. If she hadn't snooped around in his room, they wouldn't have to clean the attic. And if they hadn't been cleaning the attic, they wouldn't have found the books. And they wouldn't have opened the first one.  
__Why did Anthony ever, ever, trust her to be right? Now all because of her they had ended up in this crappy place of the past. Okay... it was his fault also. Being the older one of the two, it was his duty to keep her in track. __(And in the background said girl is screaming, 'I'm just younger by two minutes, god dammit!').  
__But, here they are, in the past, reading about their father's escapades, having no clue as to how to get back. Only time will tell..._

**Disclaimer:**_ All characters (other than my own) belong to Rick Riordan, and all mythological figures belong to the Greek people (actually gods don't belong to anyone). No money is made from this work. Nothing at all, except for money in the form of reviews, review-ers, favourite-ers, and followers._

* * *

**GENERATIONS MERGED**

**_Reading The Lightning Thief_**

_Prologue: Books Thrill But Kill_

Annabeth Jackson sighed. It was just another day in the Jackson household, the twins screaming at each other, Percy nowhere to be found, and Annabeth having to listen to the kids having a screaming match, while _trying_ to finish up her report on the works of HDAS (Homeless Demigod Aiding Society). _Once_ again.

"Krysiela! Get your ass out of my room!" came Anthony's voice, coupled with a few objects falling and Krysiela laughing hysterically.

_Huh, another crazy day_, Annabeth's mind supplied.

Suddenly, the entire house quietened, almost as if holding its breath, waiting for the moment to shatter. Then-

"KRYSIELA JACKSON, I WILL KILL YOU!" Anthony roared.

Krysiela ran down the stairs, Anthony following her with a murderous intent in his eyes, clutching what looked to be a fragment of the fountain that that been gifted to him on his ninth birthday, because you never know when you may need to Iris Message someone.

"Krys, stop bothering your brother! And Tony, calm down! Tell me, whats the matter?" Percy Jackson said, walking in through the front door.

"Finally you're here, Percy. Tell your children to stop screaming their lungs out. I can't concentrate!" Annabeth pleaded, "Seriously, your daughter is _just_ like you, always annoying her brother! And that is _not_ a compliment!"

Percy smiled. It still struck them with surprise sometimes, to know how much their kids had inherited from them. Anthony Frederick Jackson, a black haired sixteen year old with stormy grey eyes, was the smartest person in Camp Half Blood, equally talented at close combat. And viper-tongued Krysiela Sally Jackson, twin sister of Anthony Jackson, was deadly with her sword. Though being viper-tongued was a result of hanging out with Aunt Thalia and the hunters too much, whenever they came to camp.

"Dad," Anthony whined, "Krys _once_ again broke into my room, _and_ broke my fountain."

"Is that true, my dear?" Percy inquired, turning toward Krys, who suddenly looked the epitome of innocence. Shrugging, she replied, "Well... I asked for his permission. But when he didn't reply, I realized he wasn't there. So I went in." she smiled sweetly.

Annabeth narrowed her eyes, her daughter had certainly picked that up from her father. She knew how to get out of trouble. And it didn't help that people absolutely _adored_ her. Even looking past her sarcasm and insults.

"And I was just sitting on his bed, waiting for him to come. I didn't even touch a fly." Krys continued, once again with that smile.

"So how the hell did I walk into my room to see you snooping around in my drawers?" Anthony demanded, crossing his arms.

"Mom, guess what!" Krys turned towards Annabeth, holding out some papers that Anthony was _sure_ were his blueprints for buildings, "I made this! How is it?"

Annabeth smiled, shaking her head. "Krysiela, do you really think I can't tell your work apart from your brother?"

Anthony smirked, "See? Mom knows who the real devil is. Now give me back my papers, and clean up that mess you made in my room."

"Anthony, don't call your sister a devil." Annabeth reprimanded.

"Yeah," Percy nodded, "Don't confuse your sister with Nico."

Face palming, Annabeth spoke, "Whatever Percy, isn't he coming over for dinner tonight, anyways?"

"Yeah."

"Mom..." Anthony begged, "Please tell Krys to clean my room?"

"No Anthony, you have to do it yourself." Annbeth said sternly, "I know what you get up to in camp, running around with Hayden, Skylar and Sam and . Consider this a punishment for that prank you pulled last summer."

"Why now, mom? That was, as you said, last summer! And Krys always annoys me at camp, with Emily and Jess."

"I already made her organize my files, alphabetically, last week. I'm not letting her do your work for you. You should know how she is and take care of your stuff." Annabeth said.

"Ha! Beat that, brother dear. Mom loves me more! And so does dad, don't you dad?" Krys snickered.

"It's not fair..." Anthony pouted.

"Life's not fair. Learn to deal with it." his sister shot back.

"But, you both have to clean the attic. _Together_. Sharing _equal_ responsibilities. Neither of you is going to get off scott free." Percy declared with an air of finality, smirking.

"Damn, Jackson. You're evil." Nico di Angelo's dry voice was heard deadpanning (_no pan intended_).

And so was Percy shriek (very _manly_, mind you).

* * *

Anthony sighed, "It's all because of you sis. If you hadn't created all that chaos, we would have been chillin' out with Nico."

"Well you didn't have to go running to mom, I would have anyways cleaned it up." Krysiela muttered, while sorting out some old clothes in the attic.

"No you wouldn't have." Anthony glared, who was shuffling through some books.

Some minutes passed in silence.

"Hey! Check this out!" Anthony exclaimed.

"What?" Krysiela was by his side in an instant, glad to be free from those musty rags.

"These books..." Anthony mumbled, frowning. "Their titles..."

Snatching the books out of her brother's hands, Krys examined the covers. "Wait," she said slowly," they have dad's name on them."

"Read out the titles." Anthony said, curiosity getting the better of him.

Rolling her eyes, Krysiela read out, "Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson And The Sea Of Monsters, Percy Jackson And The Titan's Curse, Percy Jackson And The Battle Of The Labyrinth, Percy Jackson And The Last Olympian. And then there are some others: The Lost Hero, The Son Of Neptune, The Mark Of Athena, The House Of Hades, and the Blood Of Olympus. And, The Demigod Files and The Demigod Diaries."

"You know what, I think these are about mom and dad's adventures when they were in camp." Anthony mused, "Like, Son Of Neptune, and Mark Of Athena. And also, Nico's House Of Hades."

"Well duh, genius. What else do you think these books are about. Mom and dad cooking, or Thalia learning to shoot, or your beloved Sam's dad Uncle Leo catching fire*?" Krysiela snorted.

Anthony blushed. "Shut up! Idiot..."

Krysiela grinned, "Yeah, yeah. Cover up your embarrassment by calling _me_ an idiot. Let's read them, we've already done a lot. Mom wouldn't mind if we take a break."

Excitedly, Anthony picked up the book on top of the pile, "You're right. I'm curious. Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief."

"First, I'm _always_ right," tossing her hair behind her shoulder, his sister bragged, snatching the book out of Anthony's hand," And second, _I'm_ reading it out first."

"Fine! I'm curious, as I said. Open the damn book!" Anthony exclaimed.

Krysiela opened the book...

...And that, was just one of their many mistakes, which come with being a part of the Jackson family.

* * *

***Catching fire reference taken from the Hunger Games.**

**Please Review!**


	2. Chapter 1: Twenty Years Back In Time

**Title: **_Generations Merged : Reading The Lightning Thief_

**Series This Work Belongs To: **_Generations Merged_

**Fandom: **_Percy Jackson_

**Time Setting: **_Next Generation, 2033_

**Characters From The Books: **_Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Nico di Angelo, Thalia Grace, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, Chiron, and other campers, depending on who I think should have the honor of being mentioned in this story._

**Original Characters: **_Anthony Frederick Jackson, Krysiela Sally Jackson, Hayden Travis Stoll(mentioned), Skylar Lukas Grace(mentioned), Samuel Confianz Valdez(mentioned), Emily Mariah Zhang(mentioned), Jessica Thalia Grace(mentioned)_

**Summary:  
**_The Jacksons are known for creating problems. Trouble loves them. And it seems, that even though her children are very smart, even Annabeth Jackson cannot prevent them from getting themselves into trouble.  
__It was all Krysiela's fault. If she hadn't snooped around in his room, they wouldn't have to clean the attic. And if they hadn't been cleaning the attic, they wouldn't have found the books. And they wouldn't have opened the first one.  
__Why did Anthony ever, ever, trust her to be right? Now all because of her they had ended up in this crappy place of the past. Okay... it was his fault also. Being the older one of the two, it was his duty to keep her in track. __(And in the background said girl is screaming, 'I'm just younger by two minutes, god dammit!').  
__But, here they are, in the past, reading about their father's escapades, having no clue as to how to get back. Only time will tell..._

**Disclaimer:**_ All characters (other than my own) belong to Rick Riordan, and all mythological figures belong to the Greek people (actually gods don't belong to anyone). No money is made from this work. Nothing at all, except for money in the form of reviews, review-ers, favourite-ers, and followers._

* * *

_**Acknowledgements:**_

_First Reviewer: fanfic1892_

_First Follower: Gage ShaDoW_

_First Favorer: Just-AWESOME-old-me_

_Many others reviewed, followed, and favored, and I really appreciated that. __Especially Just-AWESOME-old-me's review._

_Thank you all **so** much for your support!_

* * *

**A/N:** Wow! 301 views for the first chapter!

THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO **_Gage ShaDoW_**.

* * *

**GENERATIONS MERGED**

**_Reading The Lightning Thief_**

_Chapter 1 : Twenty Years Back In Time_

Groaning, Anthony Jackson sat up, and blinked. Last he remembered, he, along with his sister, Krysiela, had been cleaning the attic. And then, they had found the books. And opened them.

'_Okay, I found the books. Krys snatched them, typical of her, and read out the titles. We got curious. I asked her to open it. That, she did. And then-_' his trail of thought was cut short by a scream.

"Thalia! There is a... a _male_ in our cabin" someone screamed, saying the word 'male' as if it was disease. The scream was followed by arrows being nocked and pointed towards Anthony's face. All this was then followed by Krysiela's hysterical laughter.

"Ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha! Anthony..."bursting into another fit of laughter, Krys doubled over, holding her stomach.

Anthony looked around. '_Shit_,' he paled, '_I'm dead'_.

Of all the places, they had somehow ended up in Cabin 8. The Artemis Cabin. Where boys weren't allowed, his brain supplied, having no sympathy for his fear.

And that was the scene Thalia Grace walked into two minutes later, with a blonde girl behind her.

"Look," Anthony tried weakly, then looked pleadingly at Krysiela, who was still too busy laughing at her brother's discomfort. Sighing, he continued, "I don't know how my sister and I ended up here, but what I _can_ tell you is, that I don't mean any harm. And aunt Thalia, _please_ control your hunters." he finished, looking at Thalia, wearily.

However, before Thalia could speak, the girl next to her narrowed her eyes, "How can you _not_ know how you ended up in a place? And did you say _Aunt Thalia_?" she asked suspiciously.

"Well, you know, one moment Anthony here was opening a book, and the nex-" Krysiela began, only to be cut off by her brother.

"Shut up, Krysiela! _You_ were the one who opened it" Anthony glared. Taking on a falsetto voice, he imitated his sister,"_I'm reading it first!_"

"You told me to open it!" Krys pointed an accusing finger at her brother.

"Did not!" her brother argued.

"Did!"

"Did not!"

"Did!"

"Did not!"

"Did!"

"Did not!"

"Did!"

"Did not!"

"Did!"

"Did not!"

"You did, Anthony Jackson! Just frigging stop putting the blame on me, okay!"Krysiela screamed.

"If you hadn't snooped around in my room, I say it once again- we would not have been cleaning the attic. We would have been chilling out with Nico. And we most certainly would not have been here!" Anthony fumed.

"If you had not been a ninny and gone running to mom, we wouldn't hav-"

"Hold up!" the blonde girl interrupted the strangers, "Look here, did you just say Anthony _Jackson_?" she directed her question at Krysiela. "And did you," she turned to Anthony, "say you would have been chilling out with _Nico_? As in Nico di Angelo?"

"Look Annabeth," Thalia finally spoke up,"Please don't go all detective on us. Spare us your deductions, because seriously, Sherlock is _not at all_ cool."

Turning her head so fast Krysiela's hair would have given someone a whiplash, she stared at her brother, him staring back, both with horror etched on their face, mixed with a dawning understanding.

"You are..." they both said at the same time, turning to the blonde girl- no, turning to _Annabeth Chase_, their _mother_. Who had somehow de-aged, turning into a teenager. Maybe the teenager-Annabeth had come into the future. Or, _they_ had gone back in time.

* * *

It was a normal day. Annabeth Chase had woken up to the screaming of her younger half-siblings. She sighed. Despite coming off as well mannered and polite demigods, the children of Athena were quite the opposite when it came to being inside the walls of their cabin. There, they were worse than the Ares kids, which is a big accomplishment for someone who is not a child of Ares.

Anyway, she had gotten up out of her bed, gotten ready, and then gone for breakfast, not knowing that her day was going to take a complete 360 degrees.

She had mostly gone by her daily routine, hanging out with Percy and the others. But she had also changed her schedule to spend time with Thalia. They had been talking about their respective jobs as cabin head counselor and lieutenant of the Hunt, about the people around them. They had even talked about what Annabeth planned to do with her life once she left camp.

At least, they _had_ been talking, until they heard the scream. "Thalia, there is a _male_ in our cabin!" one of the Hunters had screamed.

She had followed Thalia into the cabin, finding a black-haired boy and girl with identical looks, the boy panicking and the girl laughing. Twins, she realized.

The boy had said that he didn't mean any harm. He said he did not even know how he and his sister ended up there. And he had told Aunt Thalia to control her hunters.

Before Thalia could speak, Annabeth had interrupted, narrowing her eyes, "How can you _not_ know how you ended up in a place? And did you say _Aunt Thalia_?" she had asked suspiciously.

And then the siblings had started arguing about some book, blaming the other person for opening it. _And_, they had mentioned the name _Jackson_ and _Nico_.

Annabeth had asked them about it, why they had said those names, feeling quite pleased with herself for making deductions like a detective. Like Sherlock Holmes, one of her favorite fictional characters. Oh, who was she kidding? He _was_ her most favorite fictional character ever.

"Look Annabeth," Thalia finally spoke up,"Please don't go all detective on us. Spare us your deductions, because seriously, Sherlock is _not at all_ cool."

Annoyed, Annabeth was about to say that Sherlock _was_ cool, thank you very much, when she heard the twins' gasps.

"You are..." they both said at the same time, turning to the daughter of Athena.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow, "Yes? I am...?"

"Annabeth Chase." they finished.

"Well yes"

"Which year is it?" the boy-Anthony- asked shakily.

"2013" Thalia replied.

"Oh shit! Krys!" Anthony said.

The girl, Krys, shot back, "Double shit."

"Basically," the twins said, "We'd like to see Chiron please?" they requested.

"Woah, woah, woah, woah. Wait. Rewind. I don't get it. First, you end up in my cabin. Then, you say you don't mean any harm. And _then_, you want to talk to Chiron. No. This is _not_ happening. You have to tell me who you are, or I barbecue you with this." Thalia said, taking out her spear.

Annabeth nodded, "You can go see Chiron, but after you tell us how you got here. Okay?"

"But," the boy said helplessly, "you wouldn't believe us if we told you how we got here."

"Bro, lemme just tell them our names." His sister advised. "Or, on second thought, let me just tell them everything. I'm Krysiela Jackson and this is my brother Anthony Jackson. Our parents are Percy and Annabeth Jackson. We're from the year 2033. So basically, we're twenty years back in time- awesome, I know. Thank you. Now may we please go see Chiron? Please _mom_?"

Sputtering, Annabeth managed to choke out, "I don't believe you."

"See!" Anthony cried, "I knew it! I _knew_ you wouldn't believe us!"

Without even saying a word, Thalia walked out of the cabin.

"What do we do, Chase?" one of the hunters asked, the same one who had screamed for Thalia.

Holding her head in her hands, Annabeth sat down on one of the beds, stunned, muttering how it couldn't be. What couldn't be, Anthony couldn't understand for the life of him. He was hurt. His mother didn't believe him. But he supposed he couldn't really blame her. I mean, how many people are told by complete strangers that said strangers are the person's future children.

But, Annabeth thought, glancing at the people who claimed to be her children from the corner of her eye, it _could_ be. They had black hair and grey eyes. Percy's hair and Annabeth's eyes.

So, while the occupants of Cabin 8 fidgeted with their arrows (in the hunters' case), fiddled with their hair (in a certain girl's case, who was also known as Krysiela Jackson), bemoaned over their misfortune (Anthony), and hyperventilated (Annabeth Jackson-sorry-Chase), Thalia was busy telling Chiron all about the freaky strangers who looked like mini "Percy+Annabeth"s, and had dared to call her "Aunt Thalia".

Listening to her calmly, the centaur said, "Thalia, child, why didn't you make them swear on the Styx?"

Feeling quite stupid, Thalia mumbled, "Sorry Chiron, I was just stressed, you know. Today being _his_ birthday, and all. It really just slipped my mind."

His eyes softening, Chiron said, "Well, why don't I come with you to Cabin 8?" It was hard for her, he realized. Even after six years of knowing he had betrayed them all, Thalia still saw Luke Castellan as the boy who had saved her all those years ago. Still saw him as the one person who had been her only family till they had found Annabeth.

Her thoughts clouded with memories from the past, Thalia hadn't even realized when they had reached her cabin. Opening the door, she found them in the above mentioned poses.

"So," the daughter of Percy sighed, "You don't believe us. What can we do to make you believe us?"

"You can swear on the river Styx, child, after telling me all about your journey." Chiron suggested.

After telling Chiron who they were, what they were doing before they hiked a ride in the Time Travel Express (better known as the Trouble Express, exclusively for Jacksons), how they got here, et cetera, et cetera, Anthony and Krysiela Jackson swore on the River Styx.

"So now what do you want us to do?" Anthony asked, right after which twelve heavy books fell on top of his head, eliciting a loud cry from the poor boy.

"Well Mr. Jackson, you got you answer. We will read these books at the campfires, starting from tonight on wards till all of them have been read." Chiron smiled.

Looking at her children with something akin to wonder, Annabeth asked, "What are your grades in school?" causing some people in the cabin to laugh, others to sigh.

* * *

"Heroes, today we have a few special guests," Chiron began his speech during dinner, "They are Anthony and Krysiela Jackson, children of Percy and Annabeth Jackson from the year 2033. And no, Mr. Stolls, I did not finally realize I had the gift of lying. These children here," he indicated to the Jackson twins, "have sworn on the River Styx that they don't mean any harm. As to how they got here, interestingly, it was because of books. Books recording _your_ own adventures, which they found in their attic while cleaning it. We will be reading these books shortly. Now please welcome them."

Krysiela waved and Anthony smiled nervously. This reaction caused an uproar. Many people were flabbergasted, how could _books_ teleport someone through time? And some were deep in thought. Who? Yep, you guessed it. The children of Athena.

"Okay, okay," Chiron finally quieted the campers down. "After dinner, sing along is cancelled. Instead everyone will be present in the amphitheatre and we will read the books. Any objections?" he asked, receiving a big 'no' from the entire camp.

* * *

After everyone had settled down, Chiron asked the Jackson twins, "Who would you want reading first?"

"Rachel Dare!" they exclaimed.

"Uh, okay?" taking the book from Chiron, Rachel read, "**Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief**."

* * *

**A/N: REVIEW EVERYONE! I SPENT DAYS WRITING THIS! ONLY FOR Y'ALL, OKAY? SO GIMME SOMETHING IN RETURN. NO FLAMES.**

**_Just-AWESOME-old-me_, I kept my promise of updating in three to seven days, dear.**

**And if anyone didn't read this before, this chapter has been dedicated to _Gage ShaDoW_.**

**From now on, if someone's review for a chapter will really impress me, the chapter after that would be dedicated to that person. Also, if your birthday is coming up or something equally important like exam results coming out nice, you can PM me and request (and even demand, but politely! :P)for the next chapter to be dedicated to you.**

**BYE! Peace out!**

**REVIEW!**

**FOLLOW!**

**FAVOR!**


	3. Chapter 2: Accidental Vaporization

**Title Of The Story: **_Generations Merged : Reading The Lightning Thief_

**Series This Work Belongs To: **_Generations Merged_

**Fandom: **_Percy Jackson_

**Time Setting: **_Next Generation, 2033_

**Characters From The Books: **_Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Nico di Angelo, Thalia Grace, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, Chiron, Will Solace, Stolls, and other campers, depending on who I think should have the honor of being mentioned in this story._

**Original Characters: **_Anthony Frederick Jackson, Krysiela Sally Jackson, Hayden Travis Stoll(mentioned), Skylar Lukas Grace(mentioned), Samuel Confianz Valdez(mentioned), Emily Mariah Zhang(mentioned), Jessica Thalia Grace(mentioned) - from 2033  
__Evangeline di Angelo née McCartney(daughter of Apollo), Isabella Andrews(daughter of Hermes) - from 2013_

**Summary:  
**_The Jacksons are known for creating problems. Trouble loves them. And it seems, that even though her children are very smart, even Annabeth Jackson cannot prevent them from getting themselves into trouble.  
__It was all Krysiela's fault. If she hadn't snooped around in his room, they wouldn't have to clean the attic. And if they hadn't been cleaning the attic, they wouldn't have found the books. And they wouldn't have opened the first one.  
__Why did Anthony ever, ever, trust her to be right? Now all because of her they had ended up in this crappy place of the past. Okay... it was his fault also. Being the older one of the two, it was his duty to keep her in track. __(And in the background said girl is screaming, 'I'm just younger by two minutes, god dammit!').  
__But, here they are, in the past, reading about their father's escapades, having no clue as to how to get back. Only time will tell..._

**Disclaimer:**_ All characters (other than my own) belong to Rick Riordan, and all mythological figures belong to the Greek people (actually gods don't belong to anyone). No money is made from this work. Nothing at all, except for money in the form of reviews, review-ers, favourite-ers, and followers._

* * *

_Author's Note:_ I know there are a lot of Original Characters in this story, being inserted from left and right, but you must understand that this entire thing never happened. So it is necessary to introduce OCs who can make this believable. And also, Riordan actually described only a few people in the books. What about the rest, the ones who had no story? Well, I'm making it up.

And guys, we all know that Jason can't be as formal as he appears to be. So, I've made him a _bit_ smiley. Only a bit, so that it actually makes him human, while it doesn't completely make him a ball of sunshine and energy, and ruin his character. Nope, being hyper is Leo's job.

* * *

_Acknowledgements:_

Special thanks to Just-AWESOME-old-me, without whom this chapter wouldn't have been possible XD You're a life saver.

* * *

This chapter has been dedicated to **Just-AWESOME-old-me**, who is, as her name tells, AWESOME!

* * *

**GENERATIONS MERGED**

**_Reading **_The _**Lightning Thief_**

_Chapter 2: Accidental Vaporization_

_Previously: "Uh, okay?" taking the book from Chiron, Rachel read, "**Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief**."_

"Wait!" Annabeth's voice rang out, "Percy isn't here. And neither is Nico. We can't start without them"

"Damn right you are, Wise Girl. Nico, why is shadow travel so scary?" Percy Jackson could be heard.

"Percy," Nico sighed, "Shadow travel is not scary."

"Well, of course you would say that. You're the son of Hades." Percy pouted.

After some time, "Hey! What are y'all doing here?"

"Percy, meet your children, Krysiela and Anthony. They've come from the future with some books that we're going to read. And, they have sworn on the Styx they don't mean any harm." Annabeth told Percy, smirking.

Percy narrowed his eyes. However, before he could comment, Anthony spoke up, "Look, uh, it's the truth. What mom is saying, I mean. We don't mean any harm. Hell, we didn't even know opening a book could have such deadly outcomes. I mean, seriously, what if this changes history?" By the end of his little speech, he had started panicking.

"Woah, wait! Are you saying that- that _Annabeth_ is your mom?!"

At Percy's scared voice, the entire camp burst into laughter.

"Excuse me, Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth glared, "What exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing." Percy said, smiling nervously. "Let's read then."

"Thank you Percy," Rachel sighed, "At least someone would allow me to do so. **Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief**"

**Chapter 1 - I ACCIDENTALLY VAPORIZE MY PRE-ALGEBRA TEACHER**

"Great, Percy" Grover sighed, "Title explosive much, eh?" he grinned.

Percy rolled his eyes.

"No, Groovy," Will Solace drawled in his Southern accent, "The title sounds vaporized"

This time, Grover rolled his eyes.

"No, no, Solace. It sounds _accidental_." Isabella Andrews pointed out with a fake smile.

"Oh gods! Guys, shut up and let me start!" Rachel groaned.

"Just one thing, Rach." Thalia stopped Rachel, "_Accidental Vaporization_."

"Thalia," Rachel deadpanned, "Ha. Ha. Very. Funny!"

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"Who does? I mean, answer truthfully, if we were given the choice how many of us would actually choose the life of a demigod over the life of a mortal?" Piper asked, igniting the curiosity of the Athena kids.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"That _never_ happens." Thalia snorted, shaking her head.

"Actually, Thals," Annabeth said, "Sometimes it does, for children of Aphrodite or Demeter, whose scents are very faint. Or, whose powers are limited."

"Hey!" chorused said demigods.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

_"Being a half blood_

_Is dangerous._

_It's scary, scary yo!_

_Most of the time,_

_It gets you killed,_

_In painful, nasty ways!"_ Will sang, making a parody of Old MacDonald, only to be met with silence.

Sighing, Rachel continued reading.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think its fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"You didn't! You didn't!" Leo pointed a finger at Percy, glaring accusingly.

Everybody sighed. Piper slapped him.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

"It's Peter Johnson." Clarisse la Rue smirked.

"la Rue, do you love wine? No. Were you punished by your father to go chaperon demigods? No. Are you literally crazy? No, right? Then please shut up and stop acting like Dionysus, okay?" Krysiela said.

Stunned, Clarisse said, "Wow. I like you, mini-Prissy."

Tipping her imaginary hat, Krys spoke in a heavily accented voice, "Merci, Mademoiselle." Turning to her father, she advised, "And personally, dad, I prefer Prissy to Peter. So if you ever want to change your name, make it Prissy, and not Peter."

Percy rolled his eyes.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

"Yancy Academy in a nutshell- private school for troubled kids." Grover declared.

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Dad asked himself _questions_?" Krysiela observed, disbelief coloring her features.

Anthony shrugged, "Why not?"

"It's weird!" she said, putting on her best 'duh' voice.

Raising his eyebrows, Anthony commented, "I do it all the time."

"_You're_ weird," Krys rolled her eyes, "but I think we already established that."

"_Hey_!" Anthony whined.

While the twins bickered, campers turned to Annabeth. "They're _your_ kids?" some asked.

"I guess." she shrugged, looking between the twins.

**Yeah, you can say that.**

Opening and closing her mouth like a fish, Krys finally got out, "OH MY GODS! HE _ANSWERS_ THEM TOO?" she screamed, "I actually thought you were cool, dad!"

"Hey!" Percy yelled, "I _am_ cool! And if there's one thing your mother has taught me, it is to not leave a question unanswered. Of _course_ I had to answer it."

"Uhm, Percy? This was before you met Annabeth." Thalia pointed out.

"Yeah, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth teased, but she was smiling.

"Oh shut up!" the son of Poseidon groaned, hiding his face behind his hands.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff**_._

"Wow." Annabeth breathed.

**I know—it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.**

"Percy!" she exclaimed disapprovingly.

"Sorry Wise Girl. ADHD makes it hard to stay still. And you know me..." he smiled sheepishly.

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

"Even we have hopes, Perce. Hopes for..." trailing off, the Stolls snickered.

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

Looking affronted, Annabeth opened her mouth, probably to tell Percy off, but then closed it, not bothering.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

Sighing, Percy closed his eyes, getting lost in the memories. If only he had told his mother everything, he wouldn't have lost her to the Minotaur. But there was nothing he could do about it. After all, the past was the past. And he had saved her in the end.

**Boy, was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

After a stunned silence, one pair of hands started clapping, soon being followed by others. Having dissolved into laughter, most people didn't see the Jackson twins get up, go over to their father, and hug him. Of course, those who were paying attention, were smiling softly. Percy and Annabeth deserved happiness, after everything they had been through. The Titan War, Tartarus, The Giant War... And if happiness came in the form of two black haired time travelers, well then, they deserved them.

Her eyes a little wet, Rachel continued.

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Hey," Frank began mischievously, "Does anyone else get the impression that this hobo-Bobo girl is a child of Hermes?"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Zeus save us! Dad would _NEVER_ have such a daughter. You know why? Because if we steal anything, people don't realize it! Whereas, even _Percy_ knew this girl was a klepto! She is NOT OUR SISTER! _Never in a million years._" Screamed the children of the messenger god collectively.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. **

"Thanks Percy" The 'easy target' frowned.

**He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"Way to blow your cover, Grover" Jason smirked.

"Hey! Grace, you rhymed!" Will's smile was brighter than the sun.

Rolling her eyes, the girl next to him slapped his head.

"Oh hey, Aunt Angie! Didn't see you." Krys said, smiling broadly.

The girl raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me, Miss Jackson, but did you just call me _Aunt Angie_?"

"Well yeah," Anthony spoke up before his sister could say anything, "You are Evangeline McCartney, aren't you?"

"Well, yeah." the girl drawled, repeating Anthony's words.

Turning to his sister, he hissed "If my calculations are correct, oh _great_ sister, then she is sixteen right now, and obviously not 36 years old that you get to call her _Aunt_"

"Wait, _what_? I let people call me _Aunt Angie_ in the future?! How _freaking_ stupid of me... Do I really do that?..." Evangeline asked, but Rachel hurriedly read on, knowing that once Evangeline McCartney starts speaking, you can't shut her up unless you say that you love One Direction, you worship 5 Seconds Of Summer, you will die if Big Time Rush dies, blah, blah, blah.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"Mildly entertaining?" Travis- or was that Connor- questioned, smirking. The other continued, "Anything bad or embarrassing?"

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Aw, Percy. That's so cute of you. Getting all defensive of Grover." Piper cooed, earning a blush from Percy and a thumbs up from Thalia.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

"Wow, Goat Boy. Kudos." Thalia said dryly.

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

"What happened?" Leo asked curiously.

"Leo, if you would let Rachel continue?" Piper asked.

Zipping his lips, Leo threw away an imaginary key to the side. And looked at Piper innocently. Though how someone can zip something with a _key_, I don't know.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperon, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

Clarisse muttered something which suspiciously sounded like b- uh, female dog.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker.**

Nico raised an eyebrow, "She's meaner than that."

Percy shuddered, "I know that _now_."

**She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.**

"No, that would be Nico." Travis snickered.

"Stoll," Nico glared, "how many times do I have to tell you that THE DEVIL AND MY FATHER ARE NOT THE SAME! THEY BELONG TO DIFFERENT MYTHOLOGIES!"

"So maybe, they are counterparts of each other" Connor put in, getting a kick out of annoying the poor son of Hades, who looked like he wanted to make a sacrifice of the brothers to his father.

"Shut up, Stoll." Krysiela sneered.

"How sweet, Travis and Connor. Now someone is here to defend the oh so scary and deadly, pun intended, son of Hades." Evangeline said, adopting a fake dreamy expression.

"...Looks constipated." someone whispered, causing the daughter of Apollo to frown.

**She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"Wow. Just...wow, Grover! No words for you..." Thalia said.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

Everyone laughed. Including Rachel, who had to hold onto Hazel for support, lest she fall down the log she was sitting on.

Finally composing herself, she picked up the book again. Flipping to the correct page, she continued.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"**

"GOD?!" the entire camp exclaimed, enraged, causing Percy to shrink back behind Annabeth. Chiron smiled mentally, remembering his own reaction to that seven years ago. He had been so disappointed. But the only thing that kept him from showing it had been his imagination to Zeus' and the other gods' reaction.

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"**

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

**"-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"He summed up such an important event in the history of Greece in only four or five sentences?" Austin asked incredulously.

**Some snickers from the group.**

"_¡Disculpa! Estaba en lo cierto! Apuesto a que ni siquiera sabía lo que estaba pasando, pendejos_." Leo muttered, glaring angrily at the ground.

"Leo," Percy tried to calm down the mechanic, who looked like he was ready to blow someone up. "It's okay. I don't know what you said, but whatever it was, thanks. And anyways, I don't care about those idiots."

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"_Busted~"_ Grover sang, grinning at Percy, who grinned back, knowing what Rachel was going to read out next.

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

"First, Mr. _Bru_nner smells like coffee. And then, he has radar ears. Is he some supernatural weirdo?" Leo asked.

Percy grinned secretively, then shrugged, "I don't know, sir."

"Percy, I swear, if you guys don't stop with this _right now,_ I'll make your life hell. Nico will help me out." Rachel glared.

Gulping, Percy nodded.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

"Ooh. So _this_ was what Rachel was talking about." Jason observed, grinning. "Am I right?"

"Yeap." Percy replied smugly.

"I see."

"JASON GRACE! _Stop_ helping him out! I swear...!" Rachel fumed.

"Now what, Rach?" Percy asked in a bored voice.

The mortal glared.

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed.**

"Oh well." Jason shrugged, "But I didn't know that. I swear."

**"Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"On that _happy note?" _Hazel asked, raising an eyebrow.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"Basically, they were being themselves." Thalia quipped. The hunters nodded their agreement, glaring at the 'doofuses' around.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go- intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman per-son who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshiped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. No-he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"I had been, child." Chiron smiled sadly.

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

**Nobody else seemed to notice. **

"Of course, Kelp Head! There is a thing called the Mist." Thalia rolled her eyes.

"Thals, I didn't _know_ gods existed back then." Percy defended.

**Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

"Duh!" Krysiela snorted.

"You know, sis, even if she saw Nancy, she wouldn't have commented. 'Cause both of them had a common enemy- Dad. And anyway, Alec- Mrs. Dodds wasn't supposed to bother with anyone else, other than Dad and Uncle Grover. And maybe Mr. Brunner."

"Huh? Why Mr. Brunner? I mean, I get for Percy and Grover, demigod and supergoat - no, that title's only for Coach Hedge, I meant goat. No, satyr- but why the _teacher_?

"Leo," Piper gave a suffering sigh, "You'll get to know if you don't interrupt."

"But... Mini-Percy spoke first." Leo whined.

"Shush! You'll listen to me, Repair Boy."

"But hey," Krys spoke once again,cutting of Rachel who was beginning to read again, much to the red head's annoyance, 'How do you know that _I'm_ the Mini-Dad. It could be my brother dear here." She gestured to Anthony.

"But he's got the eye color of the _blondies_!" Will flailed his hands as if being blond was a serious disorder. Perhaps he had forgotten he himself had blond hair, "And, no offense, but you don't really strike me as the type of person who's smart. You look pretty... dumb."

Evangeline cut in before everyone could find out Krysiela's reaction to that, "You know what Will, it takes one to know one."

For that, Annabeth sent her a grateful look and a smile, which the daughter of Apollo returned.

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school-the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean-I'm not a genius."**

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

Nico snorted, causing people around him to jump. He had been so quiet after his outburst, merging with the shadows, that people had completely forgotten he was there.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Basically one school for each year?"

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

"Man," Leo whistled, "This guy is _so_ cool! I wish I knew him. Like, we could discuss the workings of that beauty right there. Seriously, motorized cafe table. Yay! New invention idea time!"

"Well, maybe you _do._" Anthony replied, smiling cryptically.

"I do?" Leo asked, confused.

Before his son could replied, Percy interjected, "Hey! Dude, spoiler alert!"

"Shit! Sorry, dad." Anthony apologized sheepishly.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends-I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists-and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray- painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

"Exactly _how_ powerful _were_ you Prissy?"

"Someone's _jealous~_" Leo singsonged.

"Shut it, Firefreak."

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"**

**"-the water-"**

**"-like it grabbed her-"**

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

"That's exactly what you should expect, Percy." One of the Stolls nodded. The others were surprised to not hear any trace of humor in their voices for once.

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey-"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

Cheering up once again, the Stolls advised, "Never predict your punishment Percy. It only increases it."

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"Well duh! That's obvious!" they rolled their eyes.

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. _I_ pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

"Thanks again, Percy" Grover frowned, "You love portraying me as some scared guy?"

"No, man! I-I.."

Laughing, Grover shook his head, "S'okay, man. I was just messing with ya."

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But-"**

**"You-_will_-stay-here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "_Now._"**

"Anyone else think that this lady and Drew have a lot in common? _'Honey'_?" Leo asked, making air quotes for honey.

"Shut up, Valdez" Drew spat.

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

"For anyone wondering, this is how I do it." And the campers got a healthy dose of the 'deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare'.

**How'd she get there so fast?**

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

"Nooo, Percy! Don't go after her! She's creepy." Conner-or Travis- whined.

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

"Well yeah, past me!" Percy rolled his eyes.

"So now you're talking to yourself?" Krysiela looked affronted. "Dad, you know, I actually thought of you as a role model. I still do, but I don't _ever_ want to talk to myself. It's creepy."

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

"She went back to her ancestry" Nico snorted.

"She's Greek?" Katie Gardner questioned.

"_Shit!_" Lou Ellen exclaimed, suddenly paling, "She's... she- No _way!"_

Some kind of contact passed between her and Nico, who nodded his agreement. Exactly why she was his best friend. She wasn't freaked out by his dad's domain or powers. Also, she understood Nico to an extent only Hazel did. And Bianca had. He treated her like a sister, because she _herself_ was one of the loners of camp.

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

**I said, "I'll-I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

"Why in his own name was my father so upset?" Jason questioned.

"You'll get to know, Lightning McQueen, if you let the oracle continue." Will drawled, carelessly throwing an arm around the nearest person. Who just happened to be a son of Ares who pushed him off, causing him to yelp. Mind you, he let out a _manly_ yelp.

"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."

"Dun, dun, DUN! Cliffhanger! Oh, oh, oh! Turn to the next chapter! I wanna know what happens next!"

"Leo, the chapter hasn't ended." Rachel facepalmed.

"Oh. Well, what are you waiting for? CONTINUE!"

"I'm waiting for you to shut up."

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"I always got my step-brother to do it." Evangeline announced, "No one reads the book Percy, except maybe children of Athena and other nerds. Actually, I'm lying. I love that book."

"A child of Apollo, _lying_? Call the press!" One of the Stolls exclaimed.

"It's call the cops, Travis. And shut up before I behead you for insulting my sister." Isabella glared. "Actually, no. I won't be able to handle such a sister. I'd rather keep her as a best friend. Sorry for that."

"Actually, _whatever_!" Evangeline exclaimed with a miffed expression, "Any just _by the way_, children of Apollo can_ totally_ lie. There's no law against it. What they can _not_ do, is not detect a lie. Basically, we awesome people detect lies and such. But there's no rule which says we ourselves can't lie." She ranted, giving a winning smile to everyone._  
_

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"A fury!" Katie exclaimed.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

"Why do mythological people have such strange war cries? Tyson said _'peanut_ _butter'_ during the Titan War! And what did the centaurs say? No, they had paint guns. Right?" Percy asked for confirmation.

"You know what dad? You yourself gave out a spoiler." Anthony pointed out.

"Well... shit!"

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword-Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

"Prissy," Clarisse said, with a hint of something in her tone. Awe, maybe? "Things like that don't come _naturally_. You really were powerful, even at twelve."

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

"Water references much?"

"Son of the sea god, Pinecone Face." Percy rolled his eyes.

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or some-thing.**

"Melodramatic much?" Thalia asked again, raising an eyebrow.

"Curious much, sis?" Jason counter-questioned.

"Seriously?!" Thalia exclaimed, "You're choosing _him_ over _me_?"

"Well, Thals," Annabeth intervened, "They are two halves of the same idiot, after all."

"HEY!" Both the boys whined.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" People asked confused.

**I said, "Who?"**

"The teacher" Evangeline gave everyone a flat expression, while simultaneously rolling her eyes.

"How do you know, huh?" Will asked his sister.

"Well, brother dearest, you see, if this sweet lady, because honey's her favorite word, so she must be sweet, nay? So, if this epic-ly sweet lady is dead, then there _has_ to be a replacement, yea? So, there you go."

"Okay, now, everyone, just _shut up_ because this chapter is nearly over. Then you can gossip all you want." Rachel declared.

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"And that's it." Rachel aimed an inquiring look towards the future demigods, both of which gestured to Piper, "Okay, Piper, next chapter." That being said, the oracle handed the book to the daughter of Aphrodite.

* * *

_TRIVIA:_

"Never in a million years" reference from Zayn Malik in the Best Song Ever video(1D).

"¡Disculpa! Estaba en lo cierto! Apuesto a que ni siquiera sabía lo que estaba pasando, pendejos." is Spanish for "Excuse me! He was right! I bet you did not even know what was going on, assholes"

The McCartney last name is not a parody of Paul McCartney. I swear. I didn't even know that guy's last name was that. My sister told me and I was like, okay... that was a coincidence that a daughter of _Apollo_ has that last name.

The 'two halves of the same idiot' thing was taken from a meme on Facebook. Anyone seen it? The one where two cartoons(I don't know which) are in the air, holding hands. I may put the link in the next chapter.

* * *

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

**Guys, I know this is very late(nearly two months), but it's really tiring to keep editing and inserting shit between sentences, so yeah. ****Also, I was having too much fun reading to write anything. But this had been started in March and _nearly_ finished almost two weeks ago, I was just too lazy to complete and upload.**

**THIS IS UNEDITED! But I read this over, like, 279 times? Or something like that...**

**Just-AWESOME-old-me, this is dedicated to you. Without you, this wouldn't have been possible. Thank you _so much_ for that idea! You're AMAZING.**

**VOTE FOR MY POLL, EVERYONE! Only ONE person voted! What about the rest?! Or I'll just go dig a hole to stay in till eternity. And you won't ever hear from me again. Or read. Whatever.**

**Review, my minions :) And you may get some fresh onions. So when I'm being mean to you, you can throw them at me and make me cry 'cause of the juice. **

**That, is called- REVENGE.**

**Mwahahahahaha.**

**Okay, enough of that creepiness. Help me with something. My profile is randomly underlining stuff that I don't even want underlined. So how do I make it right?**

**Or whatever. (I just realized, I use that word a bit too much. Oh well, _whatever_. LOL[though there's nothing to lol about it. _But, _once again, _whatever_. Okay, enough with that nonsense.])**

**Bye guys, love y'all.**


	4. Chapter 3: Those Deadly Fruit Stands

**A REALLY IMPORTANT THING!**  
**LEO IS ALIVE!**  
**IT WILL BE DISCLOSED LATER EXACTLY _HOW_ HE IS BUT HE IS OKAY?**

* * *

**Title Of The Story: **_Generations Merged : Reading The Lightning Thief_

**Series This Work Belongs To: **_Generations Merged_

**Fandom: **_Percy Jackson_

**Time Setting: **_Next Generation, 2033_

**Characters From The Books: **_Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Nico di Angelo, Thalia Grace, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, Chiron, Will Solace, Stolls, and other campers, depending on who I think should have the honor of being mentioned in this story._

**Original Characters: **_Anthony Frederick Jackson, Krysiela Sally Jackson, Hayden Travis Stoll(mentioned), Skylar Lukas Grace(mentioned), Samuel Confianz Valdez(mentioned), Emily Mariah Zhang(mentioned), Jessica Thalia Grace(mentioned) - from 2033  
__Evangeline di Angelo née McCartney(daughter of Apollo), Isabella Andrews(daughter of Hermes) - from 2013_

**Summary:  
**_The Jacksons are known for creating problems. Trouble loves them. And it seems, that even though her children are very smart, even Annabeth Jackson cannot prevent them from getting themselves into trouble.  
__It was all Krysiela's fault. If she hadn't snooped around in his room, they wouldn't have to clean the attic. And if they hadn't been cleaning the attic, they wouldn't have found the books. And they wouldn't have opened the first one.  
__Why did Anthony ever, ever, trust her to be right? Now all because of her they had ended up in this crappy place of the past. Okay... it was his fault also. Being the older one of the two, it was his duty to keep her in track. __(And in the background said girl is screaming, 'I'm just younger by two minutes, god dammit!').  
__But, here they are, in the past, reading about their father's escapades, having no clue as to how to get back. Only time will tell..._

**Disclaimer:**_ All characters (other than my own) belong to Rick Riordan, and all mythological figures belong to the Greek people (actually gods don't belong to anyone). No money is made from this work. Nothing at all, except for money in the form of reviews, review-ers, favourite-ers, and followers._

* * *

_Author's Note:_

Well this is horribly late in a horrible time lag-ish fashion. It's been six months (WTH?!). And I'm really sorry for the delay. I had made all my notes in my book in June only but just didn't have the time to type it up. :(

Due to that awesome person opening my eyes to the horrible truth of fish escaping, I have to post this. Oh yes, I just mentioned that.

* * *

WARNING: Mention of homosexuality and teacher student relationship (just a line).

* * *

This chapter is dedicated to **Bell loves books_. _**You're sweet :)

* * *

**GENERATIONS MERGED**

**_Reading **_The _**Lightning Thief_**

_Chapter 3: Those Deadly Fruit Stands_

**Chapter 2- THREE OLD LADIES KNIT THE SOCKS OF DEATH**

"They're Nico's nannies!" Leo smiled brightly.

"Shut up man, we can talk about this shit later." Pollux groaned.

"Thank you Marlens" Isabella sighed, prompting cat calls. The poor son of Dionysus could only blush.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle.**

"_All day every day is a hallucination,_

_We hallucinate,_

_24/Seven_" Yep, guessed it. Will.

**For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me.**

"No, we magical shits were playing the trick." Grover deadpanned.

"Uh, only a particular magical pony." Percy coughed.

**The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr - a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip - had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

"Actually, since before Christmas."

"How?" Hazel questioned.

"Forget it." said Annabeth.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

**It got so I almost believed them - Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

"Thank the gods. At least you weren't thinking you were going bon-kerr-s" Leo said, nodding his head sagely.

**But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something _had_ happened at the museum.**

"'But what?' went through Detective Hol- Jackson's brain." Leo quipped.

"Oh Leo, I _knew_ you were a fangirl!" Rachel cooed teasingly.

"Shut up! I'm a fan_boy_." Realizing what he had said, Leo clapped a hand over his mouth and stuttered out, "I-I- I mean- I'm not- I'm not a fan!"

At Jason's snickering, the son of Hephaestus flushed, "Dammit Jay, I'm _not_!"

"Yeah yeah, whatever you say, bro."

"All of you, shut _up_." Piper glared.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"That was even scarier than a quest. Knowing that Zeus and Poseidon were fighting a war which could result in the total destruction of humanity. Or even nature." Grover shuddered.

"Dude, honestly? You're more concerned with nature than us amazing sons of Hermes?"

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

"Great." Clarisse deadpanned.

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

"Greater still."

"Hey, listen Cabin 6 smartasses- 'I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class'. What do you have to say?"

"No comments, Annabeth."

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

"What _does_ it mean?"

"Dionysus."

"What?"

"Old drunk."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"But Percy, what if it meant, 'I'm gay for you'?"

"... That's pretty much the best scenario I could see Kelp Head in." Thalia snorted. "And by the way, student-teacher relationships are frowned upon."

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

"I am hereby officially declaring you to be unfit to receive an invitation to come to this hell hole next year." Clarisse mimicked with a flourish of her hand.

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees.**

"You actually care about nature?" Katie asked.

"Well, Katie, nature includes water."

"Yeah but... that actually sounds beautiful."

"And?" Percy cocked his head to the side.

"You're a guy..." the daughter of Demeter said, hesitatingly.

"Well yes, Katie dear" Travis butted in, "But, he's a _gay_ guy!"

**I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

"Should I get pissed or emotional? Okay, I'm pissed. Nah. I'd go with emotional."

**I'd miss Latin class, too - Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

"You've done better than any hero has ever done." Chiron smiled, pride evident in his eyes.

"Correction- he did much better than even a god could do." Annabeth rationalized.

"Eh, you guys are embarrassing me." Percy sheepishly scratched his neck.

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"Good." Thalia said, "But I still can't understand how you lived with such a big secret. How you were able to convince yourself that it was all just a dream..."

"The human mind is a very powerful thing," Malcolm nodded.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room.**

"_Again_, _no_ comments from you Annabeth." Said girl looked pained at the mention of such a degradation of books.

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

"Funny how he knew the language of the Romans before he knew that of the Greeks." mused Piper.

"No, it's not like that. It's just that he never had a chance to read Greek and that's why he didn't know that he knew Greek. and because he had to read Latin, he knew it. Get it?" Alexander, a son of Athena, explained.

"Er, not really... Oh yeah, I get it!"

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

"Gred, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" A devious smile spread over the face of one of the Stolls.

"Oh Feorgie, of _course _I am!" chimed the other brother.

"Shut up, Conris. I'm interested in knowing what happens next." Isabella Andrews rolled her eyes.

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. _I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson._**

"No way man, it's _waaay_ more. Probably three or more thousand!" Frank argued.

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. **

"That's what they're there for, Percy" Miranda sighed.

"Well how about I tell you that I'm very unlucky in the teacher department. They are either hateful humans, or hungry monsters" Percy snorted. "No really, even if I asked, I'm pretty sure that most would just look at me as if I'm something at the bottom of their shoe."

**Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"Awwww" cooed half the girls, Annabeth glaring at them.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "... worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"We playin' Truth And Dare now?" Will asked in a bored voice.

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and _they_ know too - "**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

"So you will be waiting forever."

"Yeah, good luck with that!"

**"But he may not have summer solstice deadline - "**

"Yes! He may not have time because Cochroachonus the titan is totally against him!" Leo shouted, pumping his fist in the air.

"Cockroachonus, Leo, really?" Thalia groaned.

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

"Percy, you ignorant child." Chris tutted, shaking his head.

**"Sir, he _saw_ her..."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

Thalia stared at the ground, her hair covering her eyes. Her closest friends did not comment on the glistening look of them.

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall - "**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

"Oh wow, dad. One good thing from this whole time travel disaster is that everyone will know what a dork you are!" Krysiela snarked.

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired."**

I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.

"Could read your emotions though. You seemed really worried."

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. **

"You make it sound so weird," Nico drawled.

**They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"I say it again- female dog. She fucking insane."

"Language, Clarisse!" came the high pitched comment from a corner.

Some people snorted.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

"Oh Percy, child, I did not mean it like that." Chiron sighed, shaking his head sadly.

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be - "**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy - "**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"_Excuse me?!_ Compared to you, _they_ are from families of nobodies." Drew fumed, clearly misunderstanding the statement.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

"Stupid asses, with only money to boast about!"

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

"Yeah yeah, such a _coincidence!_" Clarisse rolled her eyes.

"And they would be together for a long, long time after that." Leo said theatrically, making his voice annoyingly low.

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

"Er, dude," Jake said, "Just because you're not in school doesn't mean you can't get bullied..."

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

"So sit it!" Austin quipped, flipping his hair sassily.

"Gay boy" someone muttered under their breath.

"Oi, man! I'm straighter than you!"

"Hey guys," Rachel said, "Can we not discuss your sexuality and just pay attention to Piper?" She gestured to the daughter of Aphrodite, who looked as if she was going to blow her top. Huffing, she continued.

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"..."

"What the _hell_ dude?! What is _wrong with you?!" _Thalia glared, ready to defend the satyr.

"It's okay Thalia," Grover soothed, "Though I must say, you nearly gave me a heart attack that time Perce." he smiled.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha - what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

"Nooo!" One of the Stolls threw a hand over his eyes. "You should _never _confess to such a thing! I thought we had taught you well!"

"This was before he knew you, dimwits."

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers ..."**

**"Grover - "**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"Percy, you _really _need to lose that straightforwardness." a son of Hecate sighed.

"No, what he needs is to have a filter so that he doesn't say the first thing that comes to mind, smarty!" his sister argued.

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**_Grover Underwood  
__Keeper  
__Half-Blood Hill  
__Long Island, New York  
__(800) 009-0009_**

**"What's Half - "**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

"Why? Because of his appearance?! Because he-"

"_No!_ it's because he didn't have that rich boy attitude!"

Juniper relaxed.

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or ... or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

"Harsh, harsh, harsh." Will sang, "Oooh, _burrrrrrrrnnnnnn._ Burn, burn, burnnnn~~~!"

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I - I kind of have to protect you."**

"You expect him to believe that after he's been led to believe the opposite all this time?"

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

"Y-you lost _sleep over me_?" came the tear saturated voice of a satyr.

**"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

"Axe maniacs."

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.**

"Huevos podridos." Leo nodded his head smartly.

"Sulphur." Annabeth shot back.

**The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road - no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

"Seriously, you notice things like _fruit stands_?" Krysiela asked, incredulously.

"It was hard to overlook in a place with scarcely anything." Percy defended.

"Yeah, _ah_ Perce look at that fruit stand! _Ah, _Perce look at that fruit stand, a_h, _Perce look at that fruit stand, i-it's got fruits!" Connor cheered at Leo's parody. Miranda slapped him.

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. **

"Um, obviously, socks would clearly be socks..." Anthony said, trailing off.

**The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fru****it leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

Cabin 10 people shuddered.

"Beautiful description," Taylor praised sarcastically.

"Okay. _Why _do you always make such comparisons? I really need to know." Hazel said.

"No idea." Percy shrugged.

"Actually, Grandpa Paul used to be an English teacher. It's a coincidence. I don't know how that matters, but I felt like pointing it out." Anthony laughed, scratching his head.

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

"Everybody stops and they starin' at me!"

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man - "**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Nope!" Leo... _giggled?!_... popping the 'p'.

"_Yes_. Yes, Percy, Grover took you sock shopping." Thalia deadpanned, after cuffing the Latino behind the ear.

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors - gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

"Grover couldn't believe his eyes. Here he was, in a predicament millions would kill to be in. He had witnessed- the rising of- drum roll- THE GOLDEN SCISSORS!" Leo screamed out, as daughters of Aphrodite shrieked, rubbing their ears. Piper rolled her eyes. Her sisters really needed to stop being drama queens.

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

"That won't make them stop." Rachel said, "'Cause they _can't stop. _And they _won't_ stop. This is their yarn, these are their scissors." At people's surprised look, she added, "What, you didn't think I can say stuff like that?"

"No Rach," Thalia shook her head, "We thought you were mature enough to not do that. Clearly we were wrong." She wiped away an imaginary tear.

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

"Wouldn't the metal have melted?"

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for - Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

"They were for neither. They were for Sam Winchester!" Kayla declared.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Thalia roared, "Frigging guy couldn't do that earlier?!"

**The passengers cheered.**

"...At Ms. Thalia's spectacular bellow." Leo said, then squeaked as Thalia turned to him.

"Valdez, I'll spare you for now. At least you said '_Thalia_' instead of... _that._" She shuddered with disgust.

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

"Much, much worse. If Mrs. Dodds is a preschooler, then these three are high school-ers. Like, the head girls or something." Nico said, expression unreadable. Basically, his everyday expression.

"Hey, you're smart..." Evangeline said, with something akin to awe, "Though I have no idea what you're talking about." and then she turned to Percy, "I need to know something. How can you see ladies at a fruit stand. Don't you see fruits?"

People could only stare, mouth open. Because come on, it was a legitimate question!

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost - older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

"Or rather, _who_. He said _they,_ not _it_."

"Actually, they is the plural of it, Aussie." Malcolm corrected his friend, who grumbled petulantly.

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

"Ooookay... Watch out Anna," Thalia joked.

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover - that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"Leave that to the Demeter kids."

"Those deadly fruit stands..." Leo said, with a plotting smile, "They can be quite helpful..."

Clarisse sighed, snatching the book out of Chris's hand, who had stolen it from Piper.

* * *

TRIVIA/REFERENCES:

'All day every day is a hallucination, we hallucinate 24/Seven' - A parody of 24/Seven by Big Time Rush. Amazing.

Gred &amp; Feorgie- George and Fred.

"Ah, Percy look at that stand" - A parody of Sexy And I Know It

"'Cause they _can't stop. _And they _won't_ stop. This is their yarn, these are their scissors" - Parody of We Can't Stop

"Everybody stops and they starin' at me!" - lyrics from Sexy And I Know It

* * *

**Hello my loves, I'm sorry for being so late with this.**

**I beg for your forgiveness.**

**Next chapter will be available soon, _hopefully_.**

**AND IT'S MY BIRTHDAY IN ONE MONTH OH GOD I'LL BE TURNING FOURTEEN!**

**Review, lovely people... _PLEASE _(yes, I'm hoping you're nice and begging will make you cave in XD)**


	5. AUTHOR'S NOTE (SOON TO BE REMOVED)

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII EVERYBODY, IT'S BEEN A YEAR SINCE I STARTED WRITING THIS LIL PIECE OF WRITING XD

SO I'LL UPDATE VERY, VERY SOON. TOMORROW'S MY LAST FINAL EXAM AND THEN I'LL BE FREEEEEEEEE TILL THE 6TH OF APRIL SO NO PROBLEMS THERE ;)

AND DON'T WORRY, I'LL REMOVE THIS AUTHOR'S NOTE ALSO SO DON'T TELL ME I'M BREAKING THE RULES. BECAUSE TRUTHFULLY? I SORT OF **AM**. XD

I JUST WANTED TO SAY, THIS STORY SUCKS. AND YOU PEOPLE STILL SUPPORTED IT. I MADE QUITE A FEW FRIENDS ALSO, WHO REVIEWED, AND I ENDED UP REPLYING TO THEIR REVIEWS. WHICH LED TO US BECOMING FRIENDS. LA LA LAAAAA.

WHAT I'M TRYING TO SAY IS, IT WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE FOR ME TO CONTINUE WITHOUT YOUR POSITIVE FEEDBACK. SO I LOVE YOU ALL WITH ALL MY HEART.

YOU GAVE ME A LOT OF CONFIDENCE ABOUT MY SUCKY WRITING SKILLS... (WHICH STILL SUCK, BY THE WAY. YOU ARE WHAT YOU ARE AND ALL THAT, "NEVER CHANGE" AS DEAN ONCE SAID.)

HENCE, I LOVE YOU ALL.

ON AN OBSESSED SIDE NOTE, IT'S CONNOR BALL'S BIRTHDAY TODAY. GO WISH HIM XD

AGAIN, LOVE YOU ALL, MY LOVELY PEOPLE.

HOPEFULLY, I'LL SEE YOU SOON.

BYE.


End file.
